ROCKLEDGE, FL - Holmes Regional Medical Center, one of four local hospitals operated by the not-for-profit Brevard-based Health First system, is now offering women a unique, additional layer of medical safety not found in hospitals operated by any other local health system in Brevard.

Starting this month, Holmes Regional Medical Center will be the only hospital in the area to have full-time hospital-based Obstetrician/Gynecologists (OB/GYNs) available 24/7 to handle any OB/GYN emergency, routine procedure, as well as unexpected or early arrivals.

Holmes' new OB/GYN Hospitalist Program is the first of its kind on Florida's Space Coast to ensure that anytime a woman comes into the hospital's ED or is admitted with health issues related to Obstetrics or Gynecology, there will be an OB/GYN specialist onsite to help.

"As all OB/GYNs know, obstetrical patients sometimes require constant re-evaluations of care decisions," says Patricia Donahue RNC, who serves as director of Clinical Nursing at Holmes Regional Medical Center. "If the patient's regular OB/GYN is not available, the Hospitalist is ready and available on the scene to respond with needed interventions. They're also there to answer any questions the patient or family member may have regarding care."

OB/GYN Hospitalists are immediately available onsite, 24 hours a day/seven days a week. In the event that a woman's own physician is not available, an OB/GYN Hospitalist can examine, evaluate the progress of labor, react to Lab abnormalities or anesthesia needs, evaluate worrisome fetal or maternal heart rates, stay on top of any problems that may be evolving, and provide for a safe delivery.

All this can be accomplished during the same period of time that a woman might be waiting for an on-call OB/GYN to arrive.

The OB/GYN Hospitalists at Holmes are experts at difficult deliveries and obstetrical techniques, including turning a baby in the womb to avoid a breech delivery, twin deliveries, pre-term deliveries, face presentations, and breech deliveries.

Holmes and Health First overall have been providing patients with the advantages of Hospitalist programs for several years as part of the Health First Physicians medical group serving at Holmes as well as Health First's other three hospitals - Cape Canaveral Hospital, Palm Bay Hospital, and the new Viera Hospital.

The OB/GYN Hospitalists at Holmes are part of OB Hospitalist Group (OBHG), the single largest dedicated OB/GYN Hospitalist provider of seasoned, hospital-based OB/GYNs.